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How to stop Slicing

Hey everyone,

A friend of mine has told me that I tend to to slice the shuttle on my overhead shots. My clears and smashes do not make the "pop" noise when hit, but my clears still manage to reach the baseline and my smashes are quite steep. How do I tell if I'm actually slicing the shuttle or not, and if I am, how do I correct it?

You have to correct your grip first. Think of the racquet face is an extension of your palm when you hit overhead shots, hold it as such. Grip the racquet so that your palm is in line with the racquet face. Have the index finger positioned slightly away from the rest of the fingers when you grip. In addition, you have to take the shuttle infront of you, in line with your chest. You will slice the shot if you take it further away from your body. One way you can tell when you slice the shuttle is where the string usually breaks. You slice your shot more if the cross string breaks often.

Thank you for the quick reply! I currently use the basic grip shown on badminton bible so I don't think that the grip is the problem. When I take the shuttle in front of me, I still do not feel like I'm hitting the shot cleanly. I think this may be because I'm snapping my wrist upon impact, which causes me to slice. In most forehand shots, does your wrist stay relatively still, or is it necessary to snap it forward at impact?

At impact during forehand shots, the wrist pronates. Pronation is the inwards rotation of the wrist about the axis of the forearm. It is much stronger than 'flapping' the wrist forward.

Another thing to look at is whether your are swinging the racket head in the direction that you want to hit the shuttle. If you're swinging from 'out-2-in' or 'in-2-out' then you're losing power because you're glancing the shuttle rather than hitting it square on.

Hmm... you might be using the basic grip but are you aware if your grip changes when you hit the shuttle? For overhead shots, you shouldn't change it. Power comes from timing of the swing/snap. It doesn't matter if you have a powerful swing when you constantly mistime your hit.

At impact during forehand shots, the wrist pronates. Pronation is the inwards rotation of the wrist about the axis of the forearm. It is much stronger than 'flapping' the wrist forward.

Another thing to look at is whether your are swinging the racket head in the direction that you want to hit the shuttle. If you're swinging from 'out-2-in' or 'in-2-out' then you're losing power because you're glancing the shuttle rather than hitting it square on.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the replies everybody! I will try practicing this saturday and focusing on getting the shuttle flat. What exactly do you mean by "out to in", and "in to out" when hitting?

A friend of mine has told me that I tend to to slice the shuttle on my overhead shots. My clears and smashes do not make the "pop" noise when hit, but my clears still manage to reach the baseline and my smashes are quite steep. How do I tell if I'm actually slicing the shuttle or not, and if I am, how do I correct it?

As the op is hitting the shuttle where they want to, then I would suggest the racket face is already square to target at impact.

By 'out-2-in' and 'in-2-out' I am referring to the direction that the racket head is traveling at point of impact. Using a compass metaphor, assume that the court runs north-south & you are in the 'southern' court. You are hitting an overhead down the line, i.e. northwards. You will obtain maximum power if the racket head is traveling from 'south' to 'north' at the point of impact.

However, if the racket head is traveling from south-west to north-east (and presuming that you're a right-hander), you are swinging from inside the line of the shot to outside the line of the shot. Hence 'in-2-out'. Similarly, if the racket head is traveling from south-east to north-west, you're swinging 'out-2-in'.

Therefore, maximum power is obtained when the racket face is square to target and square to racket head velocity at the point of impact. Obviously, this is only required at the point of impact, rather than the whole swing.

Whilst I understand what R20190 is trying to say, I must disagree regarding pronation and supination. Learning to do them effectively is key to developing a strong technique. It is possible to learn to hit the shuttle 'flat'. However, you will then have to unlearn how to do it later, as part of learning to sup/pronate. Although harder initially, this is the quickest route to a good swing.

As the op is hitting the shuttle where they want to, then I would suggest the racket face is already square to target at impact.

Not necessarily true. The OP may have subconsciously over time, learnt to compensate for the error without knowing.

Originally Posted by Line & Length

Whilst I understand what R20190 is trying to say, I must disagree regarding pronation and supination. Learning to do them effectively is key to developing a strong technique. It is possible to learn to hit the shuttle 'flat'. However, you will then have to unlearn how to do it later, as part of learning to sup/pronate. Although harder initially, this is the quickest route to a good swing.

I don't disagree with the pronation/supination technique but I disagree with the way it is taught. Too many people place too much emphasis on achieving pronation/supination regardless of the level at which the player is learning from or how well they strike the shuttle. It's a bit like teaching someone to run before they can walk. Even if someone has been playing for many years, they may not realise that they’ve not been striking the shuttle square. This is when (I believe) you need to simplify and slow down the technique for them, by getting them to think about, understand and imagine striking the shuttle completely flat and cleanly.

If I was teaching a novice to play badminton, I will make sure they can appreciate the difference in feeling when striking the shuttle “square” and not doing so, before fine tuning their stroke. Once the player knows the difference (in feeling and effect), it will be far easier to tweak and make adjustments to their technique – because they will know themselves when it is not right.

I don’t agree that you need to “unlearn” your stroke but believe it is more a case of developing it further – just as a beginner may first play overhead strokes without taking the racquet far back enough, it’s a gradual development in steps, and if a step has been missed, you need to go back to basics.

Also, given that a player has the correct grip and a reasonably stroke, chances are if they can hit the shuttle square, they are probably already doing the “pronation/supination” technique to a small extent without knowing it.

The only thing I wish to add is that pro/sup can be taught in stages. A beginner can learn to hit consistently with just the wrist pronation. Once they're comfortable with this, the extra parts of the swing (elbow, supination, body rotation, footwork though not necessarily in that order) can be added.

You should set aside some time to have someone hit a few clears with you and video yourself doing it.
I find it that when you see what you are doing yourself you can correct major deficiencies. After that you will eventually need some instruction or coaching as you are doing the shots.